Megan Maerten had been wanting a backside cross play to come her way for a while.

With St. Francis trailing Morton coming out of halftime of a IHSA Class 2A state semifinal, the senior defender knew that if there was any chance to get back into the game, it would likely have to come from a play like that.

“Every game leading up to this, we’ve always had backside crosses and never finished them,” Maerten said. “I was really determined to get on the end of it because we’ve been pushing to have people on the backside.”

And in the 48th minute, the senior got a chance to do so when Caroline Kiesler took a free kick from 50 yards out from the goal, which she sent right into the box for Maerten.

“I didn’t think too much about it, I just tried to put a foot on it,” Maerten said. “I thought that it was going to go wide, but I’m happy it went in.”

Maerten’s goal, her first of the season, drew the Spartans within a goal of the lead, but proved to not be enough as they fell 4-1 to the Potters at North Central College in Naperville.

“She’s really good with the ball at her feet and distributes the ball well, which is why she mainly plays in the back,” Spartans coach Jim Winslow said. “But Meg can honestly play anywhere for us alongside (senior) Macie (Schweiner).”

The Spartans (12-6) entered Friday’s contest with a small damper to their roster, with leading-scorer Lorraine Surina out after suffering a torn ACL in their supersectional victory over Elmwood Park.

“Losing Lorraine hurt us,” Winslow said. “Not only is she a leading scorer but she’s someone who can run at the goal and take people on. You can’t beat her up. But I don’t want to make excuses, Morton was just the better team here.”

But even with losing their top striker, St. Francis pushed the pace on the offensive side with two solid offensive chances in the first five minutes, with Kiesler getting two shots that just missed the mark.

Morton didn’t get its first shot on goal until the 25th minute, a shot from Izzy Ripka that snuck into the far post for a goal. Claire Ceresa would double the lead just seven minutes later, pushing it to a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.

“We didn’t get out-possessed, but give credit to them, that first goal they hit was a nice shot,” Winslow said. “We had two opportunities in the first 12 minutes that we didn’t get any production out of. And after the first one, they got down a little bit and then they got the second one.”

The Potters would hold off the Spartans’ threat to tie in the second half with two extra goals in the second half, with Ripka getting her second in the 60th minute and Madi Greiner adding another insurance score in the 65th minute.

The Spartans will now go on to play in the Class 2A third-place game at 9 a.m. Saturday, where they’ll face Lemont, which lost its semifinal 5-0 to Crystal Lake Central.

“I just want to play hard, and if we do the simple things like connecting passes, it’ll work out,” Maertens said. “All of us deserve to be here. We were a four-seed in our sectional, we didn’t think we were going to make it this far, but I think we should really take advantage of the opportunity of being able to come here.”